


Stay Alive

by ScarletMelodies92



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Gen, Goodbyes, Heavy Angst, Hopeful Ending, Hurt Tony Stark, Last words, Natasha Feels, Natasha Is a Good Bro, Natasha Romanov & Tony Stark Friendship, Natasha Romanov Is Not A Robot, Near Death, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Tony Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-07
Updated: 2017-11-07
Packaged: 2019-01-30 20:56:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12661260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScarletMelodies92/pseuds/ScarletMelodies92
Summary: Tony's dying. Natasha listens, and then does something selfish.





	Stay Alive

There's too much red.

Natasha knows this from the very start, knows a hopeless case when she sees one. It doesn't stop it from aching, as if she's the one shot instead of Tony. Three bullets, and one just below the arc reactor. He doesn't stand a chance, and Natasha wonders if she'll have to lie to him, tell him it'll all be okay, he's going to be fine. One look at his face tells her she doesn't have to.

Natasha used to like red. She liked the colour of her hair, the pretty shades of scarlet dancing in the fire, and then she went to the Red Room, and red became a colour of nightmares. Seeing it coating her friend, lying still and sad on the floor of the event room is just horrifying.

A gentle hand guides her hands off Tony's wounds, where she'd been frantically pressing, desperately trying to keep the mechanic's fuel pumping inside him, not spilling out of the floor like just another glass of tipped champagne. She looks down. The hand is Tony's, and he smiles softly at her before releasing her wrist. His face is blurred, and Natasha immediately categories the potential injuries she could have to cause this symptom when she realises she's crying. A tear drips onto Tony's cheek, and he frowns, bats at it weakly, wondering what it is. His vision's gone, Natasha realises, and that, more than anything, is what makes her decide to stay, rather than fleeing like a coward, leaving Tony to face death alone. She dreads to think of how terrible that would feel for Tony, used to being in perfect control.

"Tasha?" asks a near whisper, and Natasha refuses to let herself collapse.

"I'm here, Tony."

"My will...you know where it is..."

"Of course," Natasha reassures, squeezing his hand and ignoring the shameful taste of salt on her tongue and the bitter stinging of his eyes. Tony's blank eyes aren't closed yet, but it's only a matter of time.

"Tell... Peps I love her," Tony croaks, then laughs painfully. A bubble of blood bursts at the side of his mouth. "Huh. Never...never thought I'd be a cliché."

Natasha can't help it; she laughs wetly. "How embarrassing, Shellhead."

"I want...my final words to be something..." Tony coughs and yet more red trickled out of his mouth, into his bloodcrusted beard. "Memorable. Like... Fury's a dick."

Natasha laughs, and even she can tell it's hysterical. 

"Tell the others...they weren't a half bad team. And..." Tony's voice is ragged. "And tell honeybear the suits are all his, and I'm taking... Barcelona 1999 to my grave. And tell J override 20-8. He's to do what he thinks is right."

Natasha won't break down over this. "Please, Tony. Stay alive for us, please."

"Eh. I'm a lazy bastard. Maybe I'll just take a-" Tony shudders, and for a moment Natasha thinks that's it. "Take a nap. I'm so tired, Tasha."

"Tony. This is important." Natasha knows it's hopeless, so why is she trying so hard?

It's just so unfair. Things were just starting to heal after Civil War, and now Hydra takes it's revenge on Tony, for the simple crime of healing Bucky. Bucky's freedom meant Tony's death. If Natasha had known that, she's not sure she would have made the trade.

"Не уходи," Natasha whispers, and she's being so selfish. "Don't go."

"Have to. Thanks, Tasha," Tony murmured. Out of the corner of her eye, Natasha sees the others arrive, sees the horror on their faces, the taunt pain on Clint and Thor, the grief on Bruce's, the sheer shock on Steve's and the guilt on Bucky's.

"Stay alive, Tony," Natasha pleads, the great Black Widow reduced to tears because of this stupid, infuriating, idiotic, self-sacrificing genius who cared too much about others and not enough about himself. Then, it hits her. What they were sent here to retrieve at any cost.

Well, fuck that.

"Подождите!" Natasha digs in her pack. Tony's bone white. His eyes are closing, and she can't see his chest moving. It was only his rattling breath that told her he was still there. "Дерьмо. Дерьмо. Нет, нет, нет, оставайся со мной."

Tony takes his last breath as she plunges the syringe into his neck.

A syringe full of red.

**Author's Note:**

> Translations (in order)  
> Don't go.  
> Wait!  
> Shit. Shit. No no no stay with me.
> 
> If you really are too sad, I didn't tag it Major Character Death for a reason. :)


End file.
